Imagine a world with robot construction workers.

Ignore all of the political and moral complexities for a moment and think about how transformative that would be.

If there are robot construction workers it likely means there are robots to replace most, if not all, physical work done by humans today.

But let’s just focus on robot construction workers for a second.

I’ve always wanted to design and build my own home. The major costs for this are land, permits, materials, design, and construction. If robot construction workers cut the construction costs by 50% (likely more), the cost of building a home goes down dramatically. Iterate with AI, that is 100% versed in the laws and regulations of the building site, on the design and you’ve reduced the cost even more. Now the dream of building my own home starts to sound possible from a cost perspective.

If we have robot construction workers, what other types of robots might we have? Sanitation robots seem likely. Imagine robots, everywhere, that keep everything clean. All streets and freeways, clean. Gardener robots. The built environment could be turned into an endless garden. Everything could be tended to. No more dangerous sidewalks, potholes, or gum stained concrete. No more doing your laundry, folding your clothes, cooking your food, cleaning your dishes, cleaning your home. The drudgery of life is removed. What is left? Anything you want. If you miss all of the imperfections life has to offer today, go to Dismaland.

The cost to transform the physical world becomes so affordable that huge projects are taken on. The Los Angeles river is an exceptionally large and exceptionally ugly, if effective, artifact. Could it be replaced with something more beautiful and more effective? Almost certainly, but the cost to do so would be astronomical today. Perhaps it wouldn’t be with robot construction workers and AI engineers.

The physical world starts to become more of a, “if you can think it, you can build it”, place. Desalination plants are built to cover the land with fresh water where ever it is valued. Landlocked regions create lakes and seas. “There’s only so much beachfront property in Southern California.” no longer holds any weight.

We are on the verge of all of this becoming reality.